Mayor Woodward to controversial anti-abortion church and Planned Parenthood: Let’s sit down and talk – Pacific Northwest Inlander

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Daniel Walters photo

Ken Peters, pastor of the Church at Planned Parenthood.

But to local anti-abortion Pastor Ken Peters, Planned Parenthood also represents another setting: the "gates of hell." And it's the job of a Christian church, he argues, to prevail against the gates of hell.

In October 2018, inspired by a sermon from anti-abortion protest movement leader Rusty Thomas,Peters launched "the Church at Planned Parenthood," conducting worship, prayer and fiery anti-abortion preaching on the public lawn directly outside of the Planned Parenthood clinic on Indiana Avenue on Wednesday evenings. Peters didn't consider it a protest. He considered it church.

But Planned Parenthood considered it something else: harassment. The clinic reported that theamplified sermons and condemnations from the Church at Planned Parenthoodwould leak through their clinic walls, and that, according to their attorney, "patients and caregivers cannot hear each other speak even when sitting right across from each other."

Over the last year and a half, tensions between the church, Planned Parenthood and pro-choice counter-protesters have continued to ratchet up. Teams of armed police officers have attended some City Council meetings, responding to unspecified social media threats. And this Monday, the conflict will come to a head when the City Council will likely pass Councilwoman Lori Kinnear's resolution intended to strengthen the city's noise ordinance in response to the concerns.

But last Friday,Mayor Nadine Woodward took her own action: Her staff sent out an email to both Peters and Karl Eastlund, CEO of the Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho, with a message: Let's all sit down and talk.

"Mayor Woodward asked if we could arrange a meeting to discuss the current concerns about noise, assembly, ordinances, etc," the email reads."We are hopeful to have a small group that represents the voices of interested parties.This includes each of you, the Police Chief, Councilmember Kinnear, Council President Beggs, the Mayor and the City Administrator."

City spokesman Brian Coddington says the proposal to bring everyone together was Mayor Woodward's idea. The mayor, he says, was concerned about the sheer number of police officers and supervisors who were needed to keep the peace and handle existing noise ordinance complaints during services. According to an email from the Spokane Police Department to Councilman Michael Cathcart, the law enforcement response to the Jan. 29 Church at Planned Parenthood service required one police captain, one lieutenant, two sergeants, one detective and eight police officers, costing the taxpayer more than $5,450 in police overtime in a single night.

Woodward, Coddington says, was "looking for a chance to be an intermediary for the situation and seeing if there's another solution that doesnt involve a commitment of city resources."

"Mr. Peters continues to incite his followers with violent rhetoric and has vowed to continue to disrupt our health care services," Eastlund wrote in an email. "You would be better off meeting with him and police separately to discuss how enforcement will impact him and his followers."

Daniel Walters photo

Ken Peters greets Rep. Matt Shea at a December meeting of the Church at Planned Parenthood.

THE KEN PETERS MEETING

He says the mayor wasn't trying to take one side or the other, only looking for ways that everyone could accomplish what she wanted to accomplish.

"I think shes wanting to work this out so where it doesnt escalate," Peters says. "I think shes doing exactly what a mayor should do, trying to resolve problems at a table and bring all the parties together."

City Council President Breean Beggs says there was "no grand resolution" or possible third-way compromise floated at the meeting that would result in delaying or canceling Monday night's vote. Instead, he sees the possibility of addressing the conflict after the ordinance passes.

"The closer we can get to Planned Parenthood the better," Peters says.

"You cant stop sin with sin. You stop sin with holiness," Peters says. "Gods weaponry are prayer and worship and preaching. Its never any kind of sin or violence. ... We wouldnt harm a flea."

"For us, its our constitutional rights of freedom of worship and freedom of speech and freedom to peaceably assemble without a dark cloud held over our head," Peters says. "Thats what we want and thats what were fighting for."

The draft version of Kinnear's ordinance goes beyond the state standard barring "noise that unreasonably disturbs the peace within" a health facility. Instead, it bans intentionally making any noise outside a health care facility that is intended to cause or actually causes "interference with the safe and effective delivery of health services within the building" after a law enforcement officer has told them to cease. Not only that, but it allows individuals to sue violators directly in civil court.

"Im hoping that well find a resolution with all parties involved, so we dont have to go to court and use lawyers and all that stuff," Peters says.

"The First Amendment does not demand that patients at a medical facility undertake Herculean efforts to escape the cacophony of political protests," wrote Chief Justice William Renquist, a Reagan appointee.

"He didnt go run and hide, he kept praying," Peters says. "Theres law that is higher than mans law Gods law. The kingdom of heaven has laws that are higher than the United States of America."

In other words, even if the law passes, don't expect the Church at Planned Parenthood to go away quietly.

"Were going to show up until Jesus Christ comes to take us home or until abortion is abolished in America," Peters says.

Daniel Walters photo

Planned Parenthood has repeatedly asked counter-protesters like these to quit it. In recent months, the numbers of counter-protesters have dwindled as a result.

Paul Dillon, vice president of public affairs, says that Planned Parenthood met with city officials on Thursday. Woodward, he says, left the meeting early on, but other officials like Police Chief Craig Meidl and City Administrator Wes Crago stayed to listen.

"The meeting really started with us explaining how this has been escalating and the fears around that," Dillon says. "It seemed like at the end of the day they understood that and also had concerns."

Dillon sent the Inlander a slew of screenshots of comments from Peters on social media to bolster the argument that Peters is looking to interfere with the clinic, not just to sing worship songs and pray outside.

"The Planned Parenthood Staff fled the building in fear when we showed up and started our church service," Peters wrote on Facebook in October 2018.

To him, there's a distinction: Yelling at a woman that she's a "baby murderer" is harassment, but softly pleading with her not to kill her baby is advocacy.

Confrontations between anti-abortion activists and counter-protesters can become particularly disruptive, Dillon says.

"This guy just drove his car right up to the egress and just looked like he was going to ram [an anti-abortion activist] but stops his car, and just laid on the horn for 15-minutes," Dillon says. "That is really scary."

Dillon says that Planned Parenthood has repeatedly been explicit with counter-protesters: They're not helping.

Because ultimately, Planned Parenthood's complaint is about both the enforcement of the law and the alleged violators of it.

Planned Parenthood supporters were particularly horrified this month when a records request revealed a cop on a body camera assessing the comparative aesthetic merits of the women on each side of the abortion divide.

Daniel Walters photo

Nadine Woodward at her campaign kickoff breakfast last year.

Last year, when Woodward was introduced for her mayoral campaign kickoff breakfast, she was praised for her work with a variety of nonprofits, including Life Services' crisis pregnancy center, an anti-abortion group that aims to both help pregnant women and discourage them from having abortions, sometimes through controversial tactics. Pressed on her position on the issue by the Inlander last year, she said she was in favor of women having "choices," emphasizing the "S."

And at a Spokesman-Review hosted candidate forum last year, Woodward was asked by Planned Parenthood's Dillon what she would do to enforce existing noise ordinances at health care facilities like Planned Parenthood. She replied in generalities.

"Noise ordinances should be enforced everywhere. In neighborhoods, on business districts, I would say they should be enforced everywhere," Woodward said. "I would say everywhere, doesn't matter where it is."

But now, that she's mayor, the question has gone from theoretical to very real:To start with, she has to decide if she'll veto Kinnear's ordinance or sign it. On Thursday afternoon, Coddington said Woodward hadn't committed to either course yet, saying the language of the resolution could still be changed.

"There still needs to be legal review of the language to make sure its practical and implementable," Coddington says. Coddington says the mayor's primarily driven by the burden the conflict has put on the Police Department, and the interests of the surrounding neighborhood.

There is a hope that, at some point, we could get to a point where there is a mutually accepted solution, Coddington says. That typically happens better when you can have both parties at the table at the same time.

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Mayor Woodward to controversial anti-abortion church and Planned Parenthood: Let's sit down and talk - Pacific Northwest Inlander